How to Have Perfect Etiquette with a Little Tech Help

Every month Peggy Post, great-granddaughter-in-law of Emily Post, writes a column on etiquette in Good Housekeeping. It's my go-to source on how to handle sticky situations. Often I find technology helps me follow Peggy's advice while saving time and money. Here are 3 social dilemmas that can be resolved politely with a little digital assistance.

Thank You Notes
When you've just had a birthday or anniversary, got married, had a baby, or received a promotion, you're faced with sending a lot of thank you notes. While emails or in-person thanks might be acceptable for birthday presents, according to Peggy, you should still hand write thank yous for wedding and shower gifts. Well, we all know from experience, both as givers and recipients, how long that can take!

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Enter Gracious Eloise, a brilliant tool that can help you produce personalized, heartfelt notes in no time. After you spend about 10 minutes hand writing a sample, you upload it to the site, and its "Snowflake Algorithm" smartly learns your handwriting, down to the scrolls you make on your "y's" and the way your cross your "t's". You can then type in your thank yous and it will print them out on a notecard in your own handwriting. Even if you prefer to write your notes long hand, try using technology to keep track of your gifts. In addition to jotting down the gift and giftgiver, I include a photo to use as a reference---it sounds a lot more personal to say, I loved the lovely purple lace tablecloth than, thanks for your thoughtful gift. I also snap a photo of return addresses on envelopes and attach them to the list!

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Group Texting and Emailing
Do you get text messages that are sent to a large group and then find your phone beeps a zillion times with replies from everyone in the group? Peggy says it's OK to text your friends to ask them to take you off the list or to tell the group to respond only to them.

A quick work-around: Turn off group messaging on your phone. If you have an iPhone, go to Settings, Messages, and then SMS/MMS. Another option: You and your friends can all use a group chat app so you don't have a constant string of texts coming ins - and it's obvious to all of you that it's a group chat. I use and love GroupMe, which not only organizes group chats, but lets you add pictures and geotags (put a location stamp on it). When you're sending out mass messages yourself, BCC people in an email and replies will come just to you. Just make sure to tell everyone in the intro to the email (for example, start with "Hi all!") that others got the same message.

Wrong Email Recipient
It's happened to all of us...we accidentally send an email to the wrong person. Sometimes it's inconsequential, other times it's a major faux pas. While Peggy says to apologize immediately and then wait for things to get back on track, here's a digital shortcut to try first. You can recall messages that haven't been opened; as soon as you realize your mistake, try to retract it. If you use Outlook, go into your sent mail and open up the email. Under the Move tab, there's a buttons labeled Actions which gives you an option to recall the message. Another option going forward is to set either a single email, or all your emails on delay, if your mail provider offers this. That gives you a grace period to realize you made a mistake.

Any other etiquette problems you'd like to solve with technology? I'm happy to offer suggestions. Just tell me what they are in the comments section below or tweet them to @GHGadgetGirl.